Saturday 31 March 2007

Preview: Australia vs Bangladesh

Bangladesh were many peoples' tips for an upset in this tournament and they have done wonderfully well to get out of a tough group. They have come on leaps and bounds in recent years and they have some exciting young talent in their ranks. They are though still very raw and incredibly inconsistant. They tend to be at their best when they are expected by everyone to lose. However, today they face a certain level of expectation. Having beaten Australia back in 2005 and drawn a home Test match against them in 2006, many people believe that they could pull off a shock here. That will not help Bangladesh.

It is near impossible to see how anyone could beat Australia on present form and that is a credit to Australia, who just a month ago seemed in crisis. The team's success is built on wonderful fielding and superlative batting. These two facets rarely fail. The bowling is where Bangladesh have a chance. This Australian side has one of the least threatening bowling attacks for years. Glenn McGrath has visibly lost a bit of nip, the spearhead, Brett Lee, is absent and without Shane Warne their is not a world class spinner. Both Shaun Tait and Shane Watson are raw in bowling terms and Bangladesh should look to target them.

Prediction: Australia to avenge 2005 in style.

Players to watch: Ricky Ponting and Mushfiqur Rahim.

1 comment:

Chrispy said...

Foolish to leave out Rasel for proven failure Baisaya.